Mark Morris News

FirstWorks' 10th anniversary celebration continues with a landmark concert by one of the world's most revered dance companies, Mark Morris Dance Group, on Saturday, March 8, 2014, 8:00pm at The Vets, 1 Avenue of the Arts, Providence. Tickets start at $38 at first-works.org or call 401-421-ARTS (2787).

Three world premieres by Maurice Causey, Charles Moulton and Artistic Director Charles Anderson headline the spring program of Company C Contemporary Ballet April 25-May 11 at ODC Theater in San Francisco and the Lesher Theater in Walnut Creek. The 12-year-old Company will close its 2014 season with a program featuring the world premiere of a new ballet by Maurice Causey (title to be announced), the world premiere of Charles Moulton's New Country and the world premiere of Charles Anderson's What's Behind Door #3 along with reprises of excerpts from Anderson'sAposiopesis and excerpts from Patrick Corbin's Partly Cloudy. [Editor note: the program has changed since originally announced in August, 2013]. Complete program details are listed below. For more information, visit www.companycballet.org .

Musica Sacra, the longest continuously-performing professional chorus in New York City, will present a performance in honor of Women's History Month featuring works by acclaimed composers Meredith Monk and Jocelyn Hagen at New York's Alice Tully Hall on Monday, March 31, 2014 at 7:30 p.m.

The Howard County Arts Council, in its 33rd year of service to the public of Howard County, presents the 17th Annual Celebration of the Arts in Howard County on Saturday, March 29, 2014 at the Peter and Elizabeth Horowitz Visual and Performing Arts Center, Howard Community College (HCC), Columbia, MD. Dr. Kathleen Hetherington, President of HCC, will serve as Honorary Chair. Richard W. Story, Senior Vice President for Marketing, JPB Enterprises, Inc. will emcee the event. The Celebration is a multi-faceted signature event, showcasing and promoting the arts and raising funds in support of the arts, artists, and arts organizations in Howard County. One of the highlights of the 2014 Celebration is the Rising Star Emerging Performing Artist Award Competition, in which ten finalists will compete for a cash prize of $5,000. In December, individual performing artists - aged 18 to 35 years and currently or recently living, working, performing regularly, or receiving training in Howard County - auditioned before a panel of professionals in their discipline. Review criteria included artistic merit, demonstrated experience in the arts, and commitment to a career in the arts.

Gotham Chamber Opera and the Jarvis & Constance Doctorow Family Foundation announce the inaugural cycle of the Catherine Doctorow Prize for Music, a competitive prize awarded to a composer to support the creation of a new work for voice and chamber ensemble. For more information and to apply for this commissioning award, visit www.gothamchamberopera.org/registration. The deadline to apply is April 1, 2014.

Today, January 31 and February 1, 2014, Cornish College of the Arts presents the second annual Our Creative Society, a two-day convening that celebrates and illuminates the role that the arts play in the health and well-being of individuals and communities.

Pittsburgh CLO presents the WORLD PREMIERE of the hysterical original musical comedy Judge Jackie Justice, which will run tonight, January 31 through April 27 at the CLO Cabaret.

Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with the Gerald W. Lynch Theater at John Jay College, presents the U.S. Premiere of The Raven as part of the NY PHIL BIENNIAL, on May 28, 2014 at 7:30pm and May 30 and 31, 2014 at 8pm, at the Gerald W. Lynch Theater, 524 West 59th Street (between 10th and 11th Avenues), New York City. Tickets are $30-$175 and will be available at www.ticketcentral.com or 212-279-4200. For more information visit www.gothamchamberopera.org.

One of my favorite memories from my last visit to New York City was seeing FORBIDDEN BROADWAY: ALIVE AND KICKING during previews at the 47th Street Theatre. As a fan of theatre and everything Broadway for a majority of my life, I relished the opportunity to be in attendance for a performance of the cherished Off-Broadway revue that equally skewers everyone and everything on Broadway. Fresh from its first ever engagement in Houston, I'm happy to report that FORBIDDEN BROADWAY is still alive, well, and kicking with everything it has got.

Pacific Northwest Ballet Artistic Director Peter Boal has announced that after a 17-year career with the Company, principal dancer Kaori Nakamura will retire from performing at the end of PNB's 2013-2014 season. Ms. Nakamura joined PNB as a soloist in 1997 and was promoted to principal in 1998. Following her retirement, Ms. Nakamura will be joining the faculty of PNB School.

INTERMEZZO Dance Company, founded by American Ballet Theatre soloist Craig Salstein, will be featured in Edward Henkel's MovementTalks on Friday, January 31, 2014 at 8pm. In its second appearance, INTERMEZZO will perform and take part in a panel discussion at the 92nd Street Y Harkness Dance Center, 1395 Lexington Avenue (between 91st and 92nd Streets), NYC. Tickets start at $15 and can be purchased at www.92y.org/tickets/production.aspx?pid=96462 or 212.415.5500.

Green Space presents Take Root with The Moving Architects and Yael Nachajon today and tomorrow, January 24 & 25 and Fertile Ground New Works on January 26, 2014.

Gotham Chamber Opera, in collaboration with Opera Philadelphia and Music-Theatre Group in New York, is proud to offer a fourth track in the nation's first comprehensive, operatic Composer in Residence program. Funded by The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the program provides professional development opportunities for today's most promising opera composers, selected on a competitive basis. Applications are being accepted through January 31, 2014.

On the heels of a highly successful run of George Balanchine's “The Nutcracker”, Oregon Ballet Theatre will show a multitude of facets with REVEAL at the Keller Auditorium, February 22 – March 1, 2014. Four works will appear on the bill, three of which were or will be created on the dancers of OBT. Former Artistic Director Christopher Stowell returns to choreograph his first new work on the company since departing from that post a year ago. Returning to the OBT stage are James Kudelka's “Almost Mozart”, created for the company to much acclaim in 2006 and chosen for the ballet's most recent appearance at the Kennedy Center in the Ballet Across America festival last June, and Christopher Wheeldon's “Liturgy”, a profound meditation set to the music of Arvo Pa?rt which OBT first performed in 2012. Rounding out this feast of dance is Nicolo Fonte's daring and visually striking “Bolero”. Former Principal Dancer Artur Sultanov returns to the stage for only these performances to partner Principal Dancer Alison Roper in every show of this work, originally created on the duo in 2008.

Mark Morris Dance Group returns to Houston for two nights, Friday, Jan. 31, and Saturday, Feb. 1, 2014, at 8 p.m. in the Wortham Center's Cullen Theater, presented by Society for the Performing Arts.

This spring 2014 season, American Repertory Ballet will present the premiere of Douglas Martin's Firebird, set to Stravinsky's dramatic score. At 'Behind the Music: Stravinsky's Firebird', an On Pointe Enrichment Series event, ARB Artistic Director Douglas Martin and guest lecturer Maestro Michael Pratt will discuss this ballet's music and history. 'Behind the Music' will be held today, January 10, 2014 at 5:15pm at Princeton Ballet School (301 North Harrison Street, above McCaffrey's Supermarket).

Broadway Entertainment Group in association with New Adventures are delighted to announce full casting for one of the most popular dance productions ever staged, MATTHEW BOURNE'S multi award-winning hit SWAN LAKE. The show plays The King's Theatre from Tuesday 18th until Saturday 22nd February. Some members of the ensemble are looking forward to performing in front of a home crowd.

Four of Seattle's most promising choreographers create 4 new works in the pressure cooker of just 4 weeks at Velocity's Bridge Project - turning Velocity into an intense hive of urgency, excitement and dedication. This year's performance features exciting new work by emerging Seattle artists Shannon Stewart, Babette McGeady [the Pendleton House], Anna Conner and Colleen McNeary.

Laughter and joy are classroom staples at a popular dance class that combines live music and dance instruction from world-class professional dancers. Dance for Parkinson's inspires those living with Parkinson's disease (PD) to explore the benefits of dance and movement with others who share some of the challenging symptoms of the disease. Whether seated or standing, people with Parkinson's disease, caregivers and friends will enjoy this creative and welcoming environment.

Met Museum Presents and Gotham Chamber Opera presents a double bill co-produced with and staged at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, consisting of Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda by Monteverdi, and a newly commissioned work, I Have No Stories to Tell You, by Gotham Chamber Opera Composer-In-Residence Lembit Beecher, on February 26 and February 27, 2014 at 7pm at The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1000 Fifth Avenue (at 82nd Street), NYC.